Along with several other actors, Inde Navarrette was announced as one of the main cast members of Marvel Studios' X-Men reboot during D23 earlier this year. The Obsession star's casting wasn't a major surprise, but her character was.
Shortly before D23, Navarrette revealed that she had met with director Jake Schreier, setting speculation into overdrive by stating, "Mystique has always been super cool."
Fans obviously assumed that Navarrette must be in talks to play Raven Darkholme, but the actress has now revealed that she knew she'd been cast as Rogue at the time.
“I did know, but that wasn't a lie,” she tells Collider. "The way that character is, it's so complicated, and it's so nuanced when you have the originality of the story. Her and Rogue are also very similar, you know what I mean, if you've read the comics. So I was not lying. I was dropping hints, and I was like, 'If anybody's picking up what I'm putting down?', but nobody did."
Aside from there being some similarities between Mystique's shape-shifting and Rogue's ability to absorb powers, these two characters have always had an intriquing, complex relationship. Raven raised Marie as her adopted daughter alongside her partner, Destiny, in the comics.
Even so, we're not sure anyone would have guessed which character Navarrette was actually hinting at based on her comments!
Navarrette joins Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Maya Boyd as Storm, and Adam Driver as Nathan Milbury/Mr. Sinister.
We'd later learn that Gen V and Scream 7 star Asa Germann will play Angel. The original five team members from the comics are expected to feature, which means Beast and Ice-Man will likely be cast at some point.
We had heard that X-Men was expected to enter pre-production in Q4 of this year. This always seemed a little ambitious, and Deadline recently reported that cameras won't start rolling until early 2027.
According to a recent rumor via Daniel Richtman, the studio is "still looking to cast a few more roles, including a female role that will have a small part in the first film and a larger role in the sequel, a male POC role who would be either Native American or Latino (they haven’t decided yet) in a supporting role, and an Asian female supporting role."
There are several characters that could fit the bill here, but if Marvel does go with a Native American hero, it will most likely be Forge, Thunderbird, or Warpath. Sunspot is the most prominent Latino male mutant in the comics, but there's also the likes of Empath and El Águila.
As for the Asian female, we'd guess either Psylocke or Jubilee. Of course, we are assuming these characters will be X-Men - there's always a chance they'll be villainous mutants or humans.
We should be getting more official casting news fairly soon, so be sure to keep an eye on CBM for updates.
Kevin Feige teased Marvel's plans for the X-Men shortly after SDCC.
"Acquiring the X-Men rights isn't just about... for example, Wolverine is an outstanding character, and we were able to team him up with Deadpool, which is great. But the X-Men are far more than just Wolverine, far more than the original team; fundamentally, it's a universe, a multi-stage saga. Much of that is what we're working towards."
"We’re constantly changing, constantly evolving, but having some guidance helps us act more purposefully, especially with X-Men—it’s already had 10 movies, some very, very good, some I think haven’t lived up to expectations—how do we plan the 'mutant saga' in a very grand way?"
"That being said, we have many more characters to explore in the future—the schedule is already booked until 2042, especially the X-Men," Feige added. "The X-Men have many unexplored characters from the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, which we're very eager to explore. That's why I'm excited about the X-Men: we can show the world different types of heroes."